U.S. FRIENDSHIP MAY BE HAZARDOUS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504720016-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: March 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504720016-0
WASHINGTON TIMES
27 March 1985
PERSPECTIVES
1 '
1 '
U.S. friendship
may be hazardous
When the book is written on the hazards of being
a close friend of the United States, several chapters
should be allotted to Pakistan.
The relationship between Washington and
Islamabad has been about as bumpy as a fast ride
through the Khyber Pass.
Much of the turbulence has been due to the
changing moods of different administrations in
Washington and to pressures by Pakistan's
prominent neighbors, the Soviet Union and India.
It is the height of irony that in a year when
Americans are celebrating India as never before -
partly because of recent films like "Gandhi," "Pas-
sage to India" and "A Jewel in the Crown," plus a
forthcoming state visit by Indian Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi - the pressures on Pakistan from a
menacing Moscow are reaching new intensity.
India has done very little to advance U.S. policies
and quite a lot to frustrate them. Pakistan puts its
own national interests first - most of them per-
ceived through the lens of relations with India -
but has been a steadfast ally of the United States.
There is a gnawing fear among many Americans
that the United States might leave Pakistan in the
lurch when the crunch comes with the Soviet Union
- much in the way the United States let South Viet-
nam go down the drain, allowed the Republic of
China to be lawyered out of protocol existence and
much in the way the United States is hesitating
about supporting the armed resistance in Nicara-
gua.
The Soviet Union's mounting intimidation of
Pakistan is the latest expression of a Moscow design
going back several decades. Discussions in the
Soviet capital recently of the artificiality of Paki-
stan's borders give rebirth to Russian aims to
acquire a port on the Indian Ocean.
Moscow sent a stern note to Pakistan last sum-
mer, charging it with supporting Afghan armed
resistance forces and allowing supplies from the
United States to flow through Pakistani territory to
resistance camps.
A fortnight ago, when Pakistani President
Mohammed Zia ul-Haq went to Moscow to attend the
funeral of the late Soviet President Konstantin
Chernenko, he was criticized for aid to the Afghan
resistance. According to a report by the Soviet news
agency Thss, new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
charged President Zia with supporting aggression
against Afghanistan from Pakistani territory and
warned that Soviet-Pakistan ties could be affected in
a "most serious" way.
President Zia, not one to be intimidated, made
reference to that stern warning from Mr. Gorbachev
when he spoke before the new Parliament last week
and renewed his pledge of support for the Afghan
resistance.
'the Soviet Union has punctuated its protests
about Pakistani support of the Afghan resistance by
launching air strikes by aircraft with Afghanistan
markings. These strikes have hit targets inside Paki-
stani territory and these raids have been protested
vigorously by Islamabad. it is widely known in the
intelligence community that these planes are flown,
not by pilots of the so-called an air force. but
s.
y Soviet pilot
Recently there has been speculation that the
Soviet Union, under a new leader anxious to flex his
muscles, may be using threats against a U.S. ally in
an effort to encourage the United States to reduce
its pressure on Nicaragua. Leaders, diplomats and
intelligence operatives in many nations are
watching to see how the Unite States responds, not
only to the Nicaragua-Cuban-Soviet audacity in Cen-
tral America but-also to Sovi-ef-pressures on a i-
stan.
One of the noteworthy events in U.S.-Pakistan
relations was the 1971 secret flight by national secu-
rity adviser Henry Kissinger from Islamabad to
Peking in a Pakistani aircraft to re-establish contact
with the People's Republic of China. Pakistan led
with its chin in doing that favor for the United
States. As a retaliation, the Soviet Union and India
displayed their outrage by signing a 20-year treaty
of peace, friendship and cooperation which pro-
vided for consultation in the event of a threat of
aggression.
Jimmy Carter in December 1977 became the
first American president to visit India without visit-
ing Pakistan, and the snub resulted in a nose dive in
the bilateral relationship. The following year, the
United States suspended economic aid to Pakistan,
citing the country's nuclear program.
The United States appears to be putting contin-
ual pressure on Pakistan to abandon its ambitions to
develop a nuclear bomb, although the Islamabad
government denies any such intentions.
How does Pakistan see its current relationship
with the United States?
M.I. Butt, who holds the title of minister-
information at the Embassy of Pakistan here pro-
vides an answer which wins the week's prize for
diplomatic restraint: "'Ibday, the two countries enjoy
very warm relations which are free of irritants."
Edward Neilan is foreign editor of The Washington
Times.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504720016-0